15 May, 2015

the Cartier jewelery shop on the Croisette in Cannes has been holded up by four armed men who fled with a large amount of jewelry One robber in an old-man mask carrying a pistol burst into a Cartier boutique, letting in two accomplices with scarves around their faces, while a fourth man stood guard outside.
Two employees and a shopper were in the store at the time.
The robbers stuffed jewellery and watches into a leather satchel and jewellery bag. In their rush to make a getaway, they dropped several expensive watches onto the pavement, later recovered by the store.
The thieves made off in a Mercedes reported stolen in March that was later found burned out in a residential part of the town.
The Cartier store lies next to the luxury Carlton hotel – the scene of another daring jewellery raid in July 2013 that saw a lone thief make off with more than €140 million of gems, after breaking into the hotel through a door on the ground floor.

London Diamond Bourse (LDB) stated that the value of stolen goods has not yet been confirmed, so it will not fuel media speculation by commenting in that respect. London’s media has placed the value of stolen goods at anywhere from $50 million to $300 million.

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Over the Easter weekend. burglars used heavy equipment to break into a vault used mainly by jewellers and gold dealers, Hatton Garden Safe Deposit. “The amount of money and the goods that are taken is never fully revealed… and there’s a good chance that not everybody would declare.
“I would not be surprised, given where this one is in Hatton Garden, if £200m is around about the amount stolen.”
In 2003 jewellery, cash and valuables worth an estimated £1.5m were stolen when a criminal, posing as a customer, emptied a number of boxes at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company

Just after midnight two trucks were passing through a motorway toll at Avallon, in Burgundy, when they were targeted. Four cars surrounded the lorries – laden with valuable goods – as up to 15 robbers wearing balaclavas and brandishing automatic weapons jumped out.
“The trucks were full of jewels and other valuable goods,” said a judicial source involved in the investigation. “They were driven away along with the four cars being used by the robbers.” [March 14 Difficult, however, to know what the robbers can concretely collect for the loot. “The ratio rarely exceeds 40% of the value for concealment. It is rather on the order of 20%. In all cases, in my opinion, having regard to the manner in which the robbery took place, we will not find the loot. »

[May 39 2014 Diamond heisters were expecting to find a large cash shipment instead of diamonds and were unprepared to deal with what they found]

the men were expecting to find a large cash shipment instead of diamonds and were unprepared to deal with what they found

Authorities in Morocco have reported the arrest of four men wanted in connection with a number of armed robberies, including the diamond robbery that took place at Brussels Airport in February of last year.

The four are wanted for “attempted murder, armed robbery at goods transport warehouses, a major jewel theft at a European airport and an armed attack on a Belgian hospital with the intention of helping a prisoner escape.
[January 3 2014]The man thought to be the brains behind the operation, Frenchman Marc Bertoldi, was released on bail last month. No trace of the stolen diamonds has been found, and investigators have speculated that the men were expecting to find a large cash shipment instead of diamonds and were unprepared to deal with what they found.

The latest suspect is a 43-year-old man identified only as Nordine A. He was arrested on 13 December but released after questioning and after giving a DNA sample. He was arrested a second time on 23 December and formally imprisoned the next day, a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said. The prosecutor would not confirm that the arrest was related to DNA evidence found at the scene of the robbery.
The robbery at Zaventem took place on 18 February 2013, when eight armed and masked men in police uniforms attacked a Swiss airlines flight.

[July 26 2013]

The grouinds for arrest were based “on anything,” according to his Metz lawyer , M e Olivier Rondu. Or more precisely a document fifty pages in which the Moroccan authorities say they have captured a conversation between Marc Bertoldi and his wife established in Casablanca. After connecting on his cell on 18 and 19 February, the masteremind said he had made a big hit, and if she was watching TV she would understand

Marc Bertoldi, the criminal mastermind behind the heist of at least tens of millions of dollars worth of rough diamonds from an airport in Belgium, has been deported to that country to stand trial. The 43-year-old suspect has a lengthy criminal record. Bertoldi is a French citizen and he was captured in France. Bertoldi admitted that he had sold some of the loot. However, he said he did not participate in the robbery. According to a report from Moroccan intelligence services, he called his wife to tell her to watch the news, saying he had done something big. Dimitri de Beco, his lawyer said that his phone had been left off for two days before the robbery, “This report not, more than five pages and is not signed . The Moroccan intelligence report is that he said to his wife, one day before the robbery, he would not be reachable. “these claims are questionable because Moroccan intelligence services do not specify how or where they got this information.”
Moreover, “the investigators of the Belgian police, who went to Casablanca as part of a commission, had never heard of this report,” says the lawyer, who said that “this information can not under no circumstances be used to keep my client in jail.” The judge Marc Bertoldi ruled that Bertoldi is suspected of being the author or, at least, to have participated in the spectacular robbery.

[May 8]

Brink’s of Belgium truck robbed of lots of diamonds

Police in Belgium, Switzerland and France have arrested 31 people in connection with one of the world’s largest robberies of diamonds.

Belgian prosecutors say they have recovered large sums of money and some of the diamonds that were taken in a raid at Brussels airport in February.

Query: why was Brink’s the shipper for a portion of the diamonds going from Antwerp to Switzerland [not the other way around]? Exports of rough diamonds in February fell to 7.49 million carats from 9.10 million carats last year, while declining to US$1.12 billion from US$1.16 billion last year. Global miners such as De Beers and Rio take the entire quantity of rough diamonds directly to major hubs like Belgium, assort them and sell to global processors, to avoid taxes.
Brink’s of Belgium, whose truck was robbed on the airport tarmac of lots of diamonds, has a nasty legal battle with its unions ongoing. An inside job seems likely. They took 120 parcels of diamonds weighing 22lbs . They were uncut, with no certificate. “The perpetrators knew very clearly, ” said Caroline Wolf.

Faced with a complicated labor dispute in 2010, Brink’s cut its losses. Brink’s of Belgium, the cash-delivery business, declared bankruptcy. Its workers were laid off without severance. Brink’s moved management to the Netherlands, while keeping the lucrative Antwerp-based jewelry-delivery business. “We didn’t have a choice, we were losing too much money,” said Mr. Candel.

The unions filed suit in a Belgian court challenging the change in job status and lack of severance. “Brink’s acted as if we wouldn’t be vigilant, but we have lawyers,” said Valerie Van Waregem, a delegate for the socialist union.

Labor experts say Brink’s probably erred in not negotiating a compromise with unions over severance, something that is required in the event of bankruptcy by a 2008 EU directive. “We never refused a dialogue with the unions,” said Mr. Candel. “They refused to work.”

In Europe, “one cannot do what one would be able to do in the United States with a bankruptcy,” said Thomas Kohler, a professor of labor law at Boston College. “In U.S. law, employees are unsecured creditors. It’s a very different situation in Europe.”

The insurance for air transport – handled sometimes by airlines themselves or external insurance companies – is usually relatively cheap because it’s considered to be the safest way of transporting small high value items, logistics experts say.

Exports of rough diamonds in February fell to 7.49 million carats from 9.10 million carats last year, while declining to US$1.12 billion from US$1.16 billion last year. Global miners such as De Beers and Rio take the entire quantity of rough diamonds directly to major hubs like Belgium, assort them and sell to global processors, to avoid taxes.
Brink’s Co., a provider of armored cars to transport valuables, said a diamond robbery at Brussels airport will have a “significant impact” on first-quarter earnings.
A portion of the gems stolen two days ago was being shipped by Brink’s, the Richmond, Virgina-based company said today in a statement.
“The total loss exposure has not been verified, and the loss exposure for Brink’s has not been disclosed,” the company said. Brink’s “has a longstanding insurance program in place to cover its losses.”
Brink’s said that while the loss will hurt first-quarter earnings, the robbery won’t “materially affect” it’s full- year profit forecast.

But a robbery of this size also catches the eyes of people who study the illegal diamond trade. A decade ago, concern over so-called “blood diamonds,” which are diamonds mined in conflict zones, led to industry participation in a regulatory process designed to clarify a precious stone’s place of origin. The goal was to make it harder to use illegal diamond sales to finance armed conflicts.
In effect since 2003, the Kimberley Process is a voluntary system that combines compliance from industry, government, and non-government monitors. This morning’s stolen diamonds should fall under the Kimberly Process rules, which cover “rough” or uncut diamonds, not finished ones. This morning’s stolen diamonds were rough.
If they were going from Belgium to Switzerland, and they were rough, they would have needed a Kimberley certificate